


love 'em and leave 'em (i want the real thing)

by yallbitter



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Ambassador Sokka (Avatar), Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), Ember Island (Avatar), Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Gay Zuko (Avatar), Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Smart Sokka (Avatar), mostly told from sokkas perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25548871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yallbitter/pseuds/yallbitter
Summary: Tall, slim, dark-haired, and a bit of a bad boy.Sokka was the first to admit that he had a type when it came to the men he let in his bed. And if they all happened to have a resemblance to a certain tall, slim, dark-haired, Firelord, well, that was nobody’s business but his own.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 235





	love 'em and leave 'em (i want the real thing)

Tall, slim, dark-haired, and a bit of a bad boy.

Sokka was the first to admit that he had a type when it came to the men he let in his bed. And if they all happened to have a resemblance to a certain tall, slim, dark-haired, Firelord, well, that was nobody’s business but his own. Of course, these men didn’t know that, and Sokka felt bad for never keeping them around, but he just couldn’t. It would raise too many questions and he’d sooner move in with the swampbenders than have anyone find out how he felt about Zuko. 

So he’d love ‘em and leave ‘em and pretend that every goodbye, every window left open as he jumped out into the early morning didn’t carve the slash in his heart a little deeper.  
After one such early morning excursion he opened the door to his rooms in the palace, only to find his sister sitting on the bed, arms crossed, a furious expression on her face.

“Where the fuck have you been, Sokka? I told you that we were coming here last week, and you can’t even be bothered to be here when we arrive?”

He cringed at the tone of her voice. To be fair, he though that they’d arrive later in the day.

“Sorry, Katara. I swear I thought you’d be getting here later, I was-“ Ok, maybe he shouldn’t tell her that he’d just spent the night getting railed by a guy he found in a local bar, who’s name he’d forgotten already. “On a date.”

Her face softened. She’d been trying to set him up with all sorts of people, men and women, since he and Suki broke up, so she was probably delighted to hear that he’s been finding his own ‘dates’.

“Well, I’ll give you a pass this time. But it better not happen again! Now, I’m going to bed, and you should do the same. I expect a full tour of the palace in the morning, and don’t say that I’ve seen everything, I know for a fact that you’ve been working on your little machines and inventions in that new room, and I want in, ok? Now go to sleep.”

She whirled out the door, and Sokka shook his head. His sister had always been one hell of a character, but she was right. He ought to get some sleep.

Falling back against the covers, he does just that.

The morning began with the promised tour, and at lunch Aang told them all about why they were really here.

“I think we should go on a vacation to Ember Island. In fact, Katara already got us some rooms over there! Only three though, so we were thinking that me and Katara could share, then Toph and Suki, and Sokka and Zuko!”

Sokka choked on his tea. 

Sharing a room with Zuko? With Zuko who he knows wakes up early and meditates with no shirt on because that’s how he sleeps? With Zuko, who Sokka has spent the past 5 years trying to replace in his heart with anyone else? 

How could he say no?

And so it’s decided, and they prepare to go to Ember Island the next week. It would be sooner but ‘honestly Aang, you can’t just spring a week-long vacation on me, I have a nation to run, I need time to prepare!’ That was another thing Sokka loved about him. He cared so much about his people, he wanted nothing but the best for them all.

Shit.

Love? Yeah ok. Maybe he did love Zuko. Hell, he knew that he loved Zuko. But he also knew that the couldn’t love him, because Zuko was straight, and even of he wasn’t, there was no way that he’d ever be interested in someone like Sokka, who was an annoying tinkerer on his worst days, and a slightly less annoying tinkerer-slash-Ambassador on his best. It was pointless to even consider it, and yet the thoughts wouldn’t leave his mind.

“I get that you like, rise with the sun and all that, but can you rise a little quieter? Or at least get out of the bed more carefully?”

“Oh. I’m sorry, Sokka, I didn’t realise that I was disturbing you…”

Sokka wanted to throw himself at the man and beg him to kiss him until he couldn’t breathe but he couldn’t, so he settled for a wide, happy smile.

“It’s totally ok, buddy. No need to worry. Just come over here and we’ll kiss and make up.”

There was change in the expression on Zuko’s face, and suddenly Sokka realised what he’d said.

Tui and La, did he really say that? Great, now it was all ruined, Zuko would hate him and probably have him thrown out of the palace and then-

“If you insist.” Came Zuko’s voice, a little nervous, a faint tremble in the words, something that nobody would notice except Sokka, who’d spent so long reading every movement, listening to every word that fell from those gorgeous lips and he could see that he meant it and the idea that Zuko thought that Sokka was worthy of him blew his mind.

His face betrayed his thoughts and suddenly Zuko was standing next to him, stammering through a sentence.

“But, only if you want to, I mean I don’t want you to think that I want to take advantage I-“

“Zuko.”

He lifted his eyes from the floor.

“Yes?”

“Would ya stop talking, and kiss me already? Because I’ve wanted to for years and if you feel the same then I think it’s time we both do something about it.”

And then Zuko kissed him, and it was everything he’d imagined and more because it was really him, not a cheap imitation he could use to fill the void, it was the real deal and the emotions he’d been containing spilled out like a pot boiling over and he pulled the Firelord closer, deeper, wanting more, more, more, MORE.

And maybe it’s still to soon to say it, and maybe it doesn’t need to be said at all, but Sokka pulls his face away, looks up into Zuko’s incredible, molten-gold eyes and says, for the first time really meaning it, those three words that somehow had to contain the depth of his feelings for the man in front of him.

“I love you.”

And maybe it wasn’t too soon, because Zuko says it back, adoration apparent in his tone.

Falling backwards into bed, for the first time with the person he really wanted to be with, Sokka thinks that maybe they wouldn’t be leaving this room as much as they had thought they would be, after all.


End file.
